


Safe & Sound

by Anonymous



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Gen, His actual dad, Modern AU, Percival is Credence's Dad, school au, ya nasties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 09:14:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9065443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Fill for prompt: Newt is a teacher, and Credence is one of his students. He's noticed that Credence is a pretty moody kid, and he's kind of concerned about him. Credence does well in class, never misses an assignment, has decent grades, and isn't an obvious target of bullying, but that doesn't mean there isn't something else going on.When it comes time for parent-teacher conferences, Newt is a bit apprehensive. What if Credence's dad (who has a different last name than Credence -- what's up with that?) is the source of the boy's unease? So he's rehearsing in his head, constantly reminding himself that he is a professional, and there are steps to be taken when reporting abuse, etc. etc. etc.Turns out, Mr. Graves is a Top Notch Father. He helps him with his homework, they hang out together all the time -- like he's a really good dad, and there's no reason to worry. Credence is just an Emo Kid with Emo Tendencies. So, potential child abuse case avoided. Excellent. Now how does Newt cope with his sudden crush on his favorite student's dad?





	

Newt was concerned for one of his students. Credence Barebone. 

The boy had transferred to the school almost two years ago now, and that entire time Newt had taught him English. He was smart. He was quiet and loathed doing presentations in front of the class with a fiery intensity, but give him a writing task and his intelligence came out in full force. Newt found himself enjoying his papers the most out of all of his students. 

In fact it was a writing assignment that started all of this trouble really. 

It was only meant to be a warm-up paper, a filler piece really, to get the class ready for the bigger essays that were coming up. 

What motivates you? 300 words. 

He was expecting the cookie-cutter papers that he received. Making my parents proud. Reaching my potential. Favorite celebrities. One little smart arse wrote at length about how a good friend of his, Richard, had had a huge impact on his life since he properly met him at age 13. Newt almost wanted to give him extra points for his cheek. 

Credence, of course, was different. 

“ _ The thought of disappointing my father motivates me in almost everything that I do. My father has done so much for me over the years, I can never hope to truly repay him in any way, other than reaching his expectations for me. I worry, sometimes, that I don’t always manage even that.” _

The whole paper had reflected on Credence’s fears and his thoughts on his supposed shortcomings and how it must disappoint his Father so much, who by the boy's account, was everything that he wasn’t. 

_ “My father is strong, he can hold his own in a fight. He’s also good at sports, he was on the varcity team when he was my age. And he’s brave and everything a man should be. I fear I am none of these things, and in spite of my best efforts, likely never will be.” _

It was a pretty upsetting paper to read. Was this what the poor boy felt like? Was this what he was being told at home? That he wasn’t tough enough. That he wasn’t a man. That he was a disappointment. 

From that moment on, Newt decided that he needed to step in. Credence was such a sweet natured boy, and he had so much potential, and it was being squashed by this negativity about his not being  _ manly  _ enough. 

He bristled at the thought. 

“What have you got a bee in your bonnet about?” Tina had asked him a couple of days after the papers came in. 

Newt frowned. 

“I’ve not got a bee in my bonnet.”

“You do,” Tina scoffed. “What’s the matter? Have the kids had enough of the David Attenborough videos? Did they write a petition?”

“Nobody can have enough of Attenborough,” Newt sniffed, before glancing fleetingly out the window once again. “No, it’s not that,” he sighed. “I’m a bit worried about one of my students.”

“Oh, who?” 

“Credence Barebone,” Newt replied. “Tell me, have you ever met his father?”

Tina arched her brow. 

“Not properly,” she said. “I’ve tried to book a few meetings with him about Credence’s reluctance to participate in PE. He’s cancelled on me each time though. We ended up just having a talk on the phone.”

Newt frowned. 

“How’d that go?”

“Not too bad I guess. He was a bit short, but I think he was at work at the time,” Tina replied.

“What did he say about the sport?” Newt asked. 

Tina shrugged. 

“That it wasn’t really Credence’s thing, he’d tried to get him into it but hadn’t had much luck. That he’s about as coordinated as a foal.”

Newt sniffed a little at that. 

“Really,” he huffed. 

Tina arched her brow. 

“I think he meant it as a joke.”

“I’m sure he did, but I’d hate to think what it would do to Credence’s self-confidence hearing his own father talking like that.”

Tina eyed him for a moment before saying slowly, “I suppose.” 

She leaned back in her seat, resting her cheek on her knuckles. “Well, you need more evidence before you go and bring down CPS on their doorstep Newt.”

“I know that, of course,” Newt replied, glancing back out of the window. “I’m just going to be monitoring the situation some more.”

Tina nodded before getting to her feet.

“Alright then, just try and keep an open mind.”

“Aren’t I usually the one telling you that?” he uttered, shooting his friend a quick smile.

“Exactly, what does that tell you?” Tina drawled, patting his shoulder as she walked past and off to her next class. 

And so Newt did that for the next few weeks. He kept a closer eye on Credence than usual. He tried to talk to him some more between classes, see if he would open up, made it clear that he could confide in him if he needed to. 

The boy seemed to be reluctant though. But then teenagers were tricky beasts to wrangle. Wanting to both be seen and not seen at the same time by the people around them. Lord knows he remembered the turmoil of his teenage years. He thought perhaps that might be the reason why he was so drawn to Credence’s case. He’d been quite similar to the boy himself. A bit timid, a bit of an outcast, not entirely what his family expected him to be, but he was blessed in that they loved him anyway. He would hate to imagine what it would have been like if they’d belittled him for his peculiarities instead, if they’d told him that he was weak and not man enough for them.

A month after the paper was handed in, Credence started to behave in a manner that was really beginning to alarm Newt a great deal. 

He spotted it the second that he came into class. The boy was jumpy, terribly on edge, distracted in class, fiddling with his phone in spite of their being banned in the school and could well lead to it being confiscated. It was completely out of character for him. 

“Credence, could you stay behind for a moment,” he asked as the bell rang at the end of class, signalling the end of the day. 

Credence paused, glancing nervously at the door before turning back to Newt. He stuffed his books back into his bag and stepped forward. 

“Sir?” he asked. “Is there something wrong?”

“I was going to ask you the same?” Newt replied, leaning back against his desk. “You’ve been acting very odd today. Are you alright?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Credence, please be honest with me.”

Credence flinched a little at that, biting his lip and glancing up at the clock. 

“Do you need to be anywhere?” he asked. 

“I… not really, Sir,” he said, grimacing. “I’ve just… I need to get some things done for my Father,” he said. 

Newt frowned at that. 

“What things?” he asked. 

“Just some errands, Sir,” Credence replied. “There’s nothing wrong Mr Scamander, it’s just been a bit of a hard week. My Dad… he’s… he’s had a really rough time at work.”

Newt frowned a little at that. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “That shouldn’t affect you this much though Credence.”

“When my dad’s unhappy, I am, Sir,” Credence replied, shifting restlessly on the spot. “Sir, I’m sorry. But I should really get going.”

Newt nodded.

“Alright then. Just one thing, Credence.”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Teacher-Parent conference is coming up this Monday. I’d really like to meet your father if I can,” he said, handing over an official invitation with his contact details written in. 

Credence frowned as he took it.

“Has there been a problem with my work?” he asked, nervousness bubbling up in his voice. “They were all on time.”

“It’s not that at all,” Newt replied, shaking his head. “I just like to have a chat with the parents of all of my students. You’ve been here almost two years now and I realise that I’ve not actually properly met your parents.”

“Parent,” Credence corrected him, shifting on the spot again. “It’s just me and Dad.”

“Oh, okay, your father then,” Newt replied. “So if you could pass on my invitation, please.”

“Alright, I’ll pass it on, Sir,” Credence replied warily. “I can’t guarantee anything though,” he said. “He might be... working monday night.”

Newt nodded. 

“If he is, we’ll work something else out. But all the same. If you could ask him to attend, I would quite appreciate it.”

Credence nodded fleetingly, glancing over to the door again.

“Yes, Sir. Can I go?”

“Of course. Have a good weekend Credence.”

“You too, Sir,” Credence replied, before taking off out the door at a sprint. 

Newt sighed and shook his head. 

It definitely looked like the boy's father was the root of his worries after all. He would try his best to hold off on his final conclusions until he met the man, but it definitely wasn’t looking like a hopeful meeting. 

He went home that night with Credence in the forefront of his mind. He hoped the boy was alright now. He’d been terribly nervous about not getting whatever errands he needed to get done in time. He shook his head. He couldn’t speculate without all the facts. He mustn’t. 

He didn’t know whether he was relieved or filled with dread when he gave his school email a quick scan before bed and found an email from a P.Graves. 

Frowning he clicked it open. 

“ _ Mr Scamander.  _

_ I’m writing to formally accept your invitation to a Parent-Teacher meeting, 6pm Monday night. Credence and I will see you there.  _

_ Best Regards _

_ Percival Graves.  _ “

Well, that was that then. He’d get all of his answers Monday night. 

* * *

 

Getting to Monday night turned out to be a bigger challenge than it ought to have been. He’d never particularly been a fan of Parent-Teacher interviews to begin with, but this was turning out to be a completely different monster. He’d never had a more anticipated meeting with a parent in his life. He found himself rehearsing the worst case scenarios in his head several times throughout the weekend, practicing his most calm but firm talking down speeches that he occasionally had to use when the boys in his class would have a bit of a tiff. He just hoped that it worked for angry middle-aged men as it did puffed up teenage boys. 

Monday finally arrived. Newt didn’t have a class with Credence on Mondays, so he didn’t see him at all that day, or see what state he was in ahead of it all. He couldn’t tell whether he’d been browbeaten by the request, whether he was worried or scared about it. It looked like he would be going into all of this completely blind. 

At least it was one of the first interviews though. He’d hate for him to be too distracted by his own concerns and nerves to give the rest of his students the attention that they deserved after all. 

He set up his little table in the corner of the gym, relieved to find that Tina had set up right beside him. It would be good to know that he had some backup if things turned a bit ugly. He knew she could put men twice her size into a pretty decent headlock, he’d seen it himself in fact. 

6 o’clock came, and there was no site of Credence or his father. 

10 minutes went and he was still left alone at his desk, waiting. It wasn’t until 15 past until finally Credence walked into the room, looking a bit annoyed but relatively fine.... And alone. 

“Hello Credence, is your father not coming?” Newt asked, frowning as he sat up straighter in his seat.

“Yes, he is. He sent me ahead because we were running late,” Credence muttered, folding his arms over his chest, clearly not happy about being there. But then most students weren’t. Though this was off behaviour for the boy.  

“I told him not to come, but he insisted,” he said. 

Newt blinked. 

“Why on earth would you tell him not to come?” he asked. “I’ve told you, you’re not in trouble.”

“It’s not that. He should be resting,” Credence grumbled. 

“Hey, don’t talk to your teacher like that, Credence,” someone scolded from behind them. 

Newt glanced up, arching his brow as he spotted a man walking over. He looked like he was in his early 40s, possibly younger, though the grey hair aged him. He was fairly well built, though not quite as tall as Credence, with dark hair and eyes, quite like his sons. The most striking part of him had to be the dark bruises running down the side of his face though.

Newt blinked and jumped to his feet. 

“Mr Graves,” he said, eyes wide. “Please sit down. Good lord, are you alright?”

“Thank you, sorry we are late, we had to park a few blocks away and I’m a bit slow at the moment” the man, Graves, replied, sitting down on the chair beside his son with a grimace. “It’s nothing really.”

“It is,” Credence grumbled. 

“Incident at work.”

“Criminal assault.”

Newt frowned, glancing between the two men. This wasn’t what he was expecting at all. Credence was scolding the man, rather than shying from him. 

“Do you mind if I ask what you do for work, Mr Graves?” he asked, frowning.

“I’m a homicide detective,” Graves replied, adjusting himself in his seat until he seemed to find s position that was a little more comfortable. “I just had a bit of a run in with a suspect and a baseball bat a week ago. Some of us are mother-henning.”

“One of us has to,” Credence sniffed. “You’d be back at your desk otherwise.”

“Sometimes I wonder which one of us is the parent,” the man replied, arching his brow pointedly at the boy. 

Credence went a bit pink in the cheek at that and slumped in his seat, though Newt noticed a small twitch at the corner of his lips. 

He arched his brow. This… wasn’t what he was expecting  _ at all.  _

“So, Mr Graves,” he eventually said. “I’ve asked you here tonight to go over Credence’s work.”

“Yes, has there been an issue with that?” the man asked, frowning. “I try and help him with homework whenever I can but I’m not always there unfortunately.

“You help him with his homework?” Newt uttered. 

Graves’ dark brows rose a little at that. 

“Yes, of course,” he said. “Am I not supposed to?”

“No, of course, you’re more than welcome to. It’s just… you’re one of the few people who do.”

“Oh,” Graves said, frowning a little at that before shaking his head. “Well, we always try to set about an hour aside to go over all of that, don’t we?” he said, glancing to Credence, who nodded. 

“So there’s not an issue with his work?”

“No Mr Graves, your son’s work is some of the best in my class. He could work on his group presentation skills of course, but he’s hardly alone there,” he said. 

Credence slid a little further down his seat. 

“We can work on that,” he said, nudging the boy encouragingly. “It doesn’t come naturally to everyone.”

“Mom never seemed to have a problem with it,” Credence muttered. 

“No, but then I was never good at it at your age, so maybe you take after me in this,” he said, squeezing the boy’s shoulder gently before turning back to Newt. “We’ll work on that. Is there anything else?”

Newt shuffled a few of his papers, his cheeks heating up a little. Now that it was becoming more and more clear that the image that he’d painted of the man in front of him was looking considerably more off base, he was starting to feel embarrassed about the whole meeting. 

“Well, to be honest Mr Graves, I’ve been a little worried about Credence. Particularly in the past week or so.”

Credence sat up properly at that, looking a bit annoyed. 

“I told you I was fine, sir,” he said. “You didn’t have to call a meeting with my Father about it.”

“Hey, enough of that,” Graves said, shooting his son a reproachful frown. “It’s his job to look out for you, same as me. Don’t go being rude about it.”

Credence huffed a little but fell silent. 

Newt arched his brow before turning back to Graves. 

“I take it… this incident happened in the past week?” 

The man, Graves, grimaced a little at that, before nodding. He paused for a moment before turning to his son. “Could you give us a moment, Credence?”

The boy glanced suspiciously between the two of them before nodding and getting to his feet, wandering over to a couple of the girls that he occasionally talked to between classes. 

His father sighed and shook his head before turning his attention to Newt. 

“He’s been jumpy in class has he?” he asked. 

Newt hummed. 

“Since last week.”

Graves sighed. 

“I thought so,” he said. “That’s my fault. It’s not so much this incident as…”

He leaned back in his seat, wincing slightly before continuing. “A couple of years back, not long after Credence came to live with me, a case I was working on got a bit nasty. Long story short, I got pretty beat up, and Credence, poor kid, he had to sit and watch all of it. Now he gets really on edge whenever something small happens with work. And even I will admit that last week wasn’t exactly small. Christ sake, I came home from the hospital on Friday and he’d scrubbed the whole house down, done everything he could think of so I wouldn’t have to do anything.”

He shook his head. 

“He’s a good kid. He just worries too much,” he sighed. 

Newt frowned and nodded. 

“I see,” he said. “Has he talked to you about his worries before?” he asked. 

“Some of them, but I know there’s stuff that he keeps bottled up,” Graves replied, rubbing roughly at his face. “I think we have a pretty open relationship, but he’s a teenager, he’s going to keep things to himself. I think he’s been writing a lot of it in his journals though, so I’m happy about that.”

Newt hummed and nodded. 

“Yes, he’s quite a talented writer,” he said. “In fact, now you’ve said that… there was a rather concerning paper that he wrote for me a couple of months back.”

Graves frowned a little at that, nodding for him to continue. 

“The topic of the paper was what motivates you. And Credence wrote about how he’s motivated by his desire to not disappoint you.”

Grave’s frown grew a little darker as he reached over and took the paper that Newt handed him, reading through it all pretty quickly. By the end of it it was fairly clear that he was saddened by what he’d read. Again, not what Newt had been expecting.

“Ah,” he sighed as he handed it back and leaned heavily in his seat. 

“I’m sorry,” Newt said, taking the paper back. “I was a little concerned about what he’d written, so I wanted to meet you and make sure that you weren’t...”

“The reason why he felt like that? It’s alright, I understand,” Graves replied, shaking his head. 

Credence, who had clearly spotted his father looking a good deal more tired than he had before he’d left, zipped back over, eyes wide with concern. 

“Are you alright? I told you you should be resting,” he uttered, sitting on the edge of his seat. 

His father shook his head, turning a little to properly face the boy.

“It’s not that, don’t worry,” he said, before ruffling the boy’s hair fondly. “I just read a paper of yours.”

Credence blinked. 

“Okay,” he said slowly. “Was it bad?”

“No, very revealing,” his father replied. “Credence, you know that I love you just the way you are, right?”

Credence frowned some more. 

“Yes,” he said slowly.

“That’s not dependent on whether you play sports or if you can hold your own in a fight,” Graves said.

Credence bit his lip at that, before dropping his gaze to the edge of the table. 

“I know,” he mumbled. “It’s just… I… I wasn’t what you were expecting from a son, surely. I mean. You’re… you’re brave and strong and you’re good at sports. I’m... I can’t hit a softball on a tee.”

Graves smiled at that and shook his head. 

“No you can’t,” he chuckled. “But you can write better than I could ever hope to. And you can make that monstrosity in your room make decent noise… when you want to.”

“It’s a guitar.”

“Not when I try and use it,” Percival drawled. “I love you just the way you are, Credence. I’d not love you more if you were better at sports, that doesn’t come into it. You’re a kind, brave young man who I am incredibly proud to call my son, and every little thing that you’re good at, and that you’re not good at, make you into that person. I’d not change any of it,” he said, wrapping his arm around his shoulder and pulling him in for a quick, one armed hug, before playfully growling, “Besides, you’re already taller than me, let me keep soccer for goodness sake.”

Credence scoffed quietly at that and nodding, leaning into the hug for a moment before sitting back properly. 

Newt shuffled his papers a little on the other side of the desk, now immensely uncomfortable about the whole meeting. He had completely misjudged everything it seemed, and though he was definitely glad that Credence was in a much better situation than he’d thought, now it was all a bit embarrassing, how far off base he had been. 

He glanced up and met Mr Graves eye and cleared his throat uncomfortably. 

“Well, overall Credence is a pleasure to have in my class. He has some wonderful insights into the texts that we’re studying, I’d really like to hear more of them though, Credence,” he said, glancing over to the boy who blushed a little. 

“But that’s the only criticism I can really give about him. Like I said, he’s a pleasure to have,” Newt said with a small smile. 

Mr Graves actually smiled back at that and nodded, shooting his son a fond look. 

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said, before pushing himself up to his feet with a small wince, offering Newt his hand. “Thank you for your time tonight, Mr Scamander. It was a pleasure to meet you in person.”

Newt smiled slightly at that and nodded, shaking Graves’ hand in turn. 

“And you, Mr Graves. Have a good night, both of you.”

“You too, Mr Scamander,” Graves replied with a nod, Credence mirroring it beside him as they both pulled on their coats. “Please feel free to call me any time you have any concerns.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Newt replied, nodding, bidding them good night once again before sitting down heavily on his seat. If his eyes lingered on Mr Graves as he walked out of the gym, already deep in conversation with his son, nobody was paying close enough attention to comment on it.

“Mr Scamander?”

“Ah, Ms Samson, Good evening. Thank you for taking the time out of your evening to meet with me. I just wanted to have a quick word with you about Douglas’ progress this year.”


End file.
